When Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah – the all-India president of the BJP – are aiming for a Congress-Mukt Bharat, the meeting of some state-level leaders of the saffron party in West Bengal with those from the Congress has put the BJP's top leadership in a spot.
Last Sunday (April 30), two senior leaders from the Congress – former MP and Bengal unit chief Somen Mitra and Arunava Ghosh – met Trinamool Congress's (TMC) suspended MP Kunal Ghose at the latter's residence over tea. Actor-politician Locket Chattapadhyay and Sayantan Basu were also present on the occasion on behalf of the BJP.
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It was also reported that talks were also held with Binay Tamang, a member of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a North Bengal-based political outfit which is amid a serious tussle with the ruling TMC over spreading influence in the region. The guests at Ghosh's residence said it was just a formal meeting but sources close to the event said the focus was on developing a new strategy to take on the TMC headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The central leadership of the BJP has, quite understandably, raised question over the meeting. It also sought an explanation from the state leadership on whether it was really mulling a tie-up with the Congress to corner the TMC. The BJP's top brass has also said that it has not devised any plan to build an anti-TMC platform. Then why was this move?
The state leaders are at the moment playing it safe. While Basu said they did not know that Mitra was among those invited and the latter arrived when they were leaving and no political issue had been discussed at what Chattapadhyay called a "courtesy meeting". Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghose said he also had no idea that Mitra would have been present there. "Had I known, I would have asked the BJP leaders not to go there," Bengali news channel ABP Ananda quoted Ghose as saying.
But their defence has not convinced many. It is being asked how leaders from the Congress could join hands with the 'communal' BJP?
IBT analysis:
For Modi and Shah, this will be annoying. At a time when the duo is turning BJP into a force which is capable of trashing any opponent by itself, the state-level leaders' meeting dissenters from TMC and Congress leaders would only make the BJP look weak.
Moreover, Mitra, 73, is known for his opportunistic politics (he joined the TMC despite having a not-so-smooth relation with Banerjee and returned to the Congress later) and if the dissenters from the ruling party and opportunists line up to join the BJP, then its mission to topple Banerjee will be diluted. In January, Ghosh was nominated as a member of the Telephone Advisory Committee for Kolkata by the Department of Telecom, Government of India. Does it really serve any purpose apart from ruffling a few feathers in Banerjee's camp?
This is something which has hit the Congress in Bengal in the past. Even as the party's high command chose a friend in Banerjee, local chieftains in the state like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (current Congress chief in the state) and Deepa Dasmunsi have always opposed any tie-up with the TMC supremo to safeguard their own fortresses, more than the party.
It has eventually weakened the party and turned it into a fringe player in the state. The BJP should take lesson from the Congress' sordid tale in Bengal and keep itself immune from elements that can only derail its mission.
